Tau have become a bit better at what they used to do. A lot of misplaced nerfs and a lot of samey guns. I believe Tau now boil down to an Ally only army, as before, and cannot hold their own as a stand-alone army. Analysis continues after the break.
The Tau can't stand on their own without Allies. Their troops don't cut it and with overly expensive and not that good transport vehicles. You can't get transport cover for your troops without blowing a tremendous amount of points. It's 480 points to put your 6 troop units in Devilfish. It's 210 points for MEQ to do the same. They can even upgrade all of their transports to Razorbacks with Lascannon and TL plasma guns for 5 points less each. And it's not just that: Tau cannot win a close engagement and their stats suck enough that they can't win a long-range engagement with troops either. 10 MEQ vs. 10 Firewarriors has the Firewarriors losing in every category. At least Orks can hold their own in CC and Eldar can put down some noticeable shooting with Dire Avengers but Tau have no retort. And now with the Kroot nerf/buff they have nothing that can even harm Marines in CC without being killed in turn.
How does this Army deal with T5 and above? Tyranids can run roughshod over these chumps with Carnifexes, Harpys and Flyrants. Daemons can nearly do it but the presence of a ton of Skyfire units makes it difficult for them. What response do Tau have for Rifleman Dreads? A rather ubiquitous unit even in 5th Edtion and only Broadsides can do harm to them. And even then only half the time. A full unit of Broadsides has a 24% chance to kill 1 dread in a turn.
MEQ armies can walk-over Tau without breaking a sweat. Other than the Riptide and Hammerhead they really have no answer to being against a lot of MEQ and almost no answer at all to a heavy Terminator army. My cheesy and stupid GK Termie-only army would simply walk straight towards them with no worries before wiping them out while that same Termie-only army gets slaughtered by plenty of even mildly competitive armies. Their BS and ranged weapons are ruinous to Tau. CC even more so. They don't even need to be equipped for CC! Basic 10-man MEQ will kill 4.4 Tau on the charge. A minimum unit of 5 will kill 2.2 and cost the Marine player nothing. A full 12-man Firewarrior unit, if charged, will be lucky to kill one back (not including Overwatch because there are a lot of things that can modify that. If it's just basic Rapid Fire pulse rifles at BS1 then they have a good chance of killing 1 more though). It's even worse against armies like Dark Eldar, Orks and IG. The sheer amount of fire that those armies can bring will lay Tau low. And then they'll get demolished in close combat.
When someone names a good unit, you should have in your army something to counter it. No matter what. In some cases this may be things like Quad-Gun but you should have something in the army itself to counter every unit effectively. Tau are pretty screwed when it comes to a lot of units. There are things they simply have no counter for. Just a few examples: Dreadknight, Assault Terminators, Land Raiders, Thunderwolf Cavalry, Nob Bikers, Heldrakes or Psykers. Also did you notice how the Psychic section was missing? Tau's only defense against powers is Deny the Witch and Allies. They have nothing of their own. The enemy army will never have to worry about Maledictions or Witchfire or Divination versus Tau.
The real things Tau are good for are: 1. Killing FX squads with low armor save and 2. Skyfire. That's it really. For that reason they are Ally only to me. They simply can't tangle with the majority of armies out there and as such are just support really. Good allies, but allies only.
Well, that's my review. With that in mind I'd like to give a few sample builds. 1 Primary and 2 Ally detachments. Let me know what you think in the comments and leave any sample builds you've come up with that you think are good/competitive/funny and I'll take a look.
Primary
HQ
Ethereal (50)
Commander, Puretide Engram, Multi-Spectrum, 2 Shield Drones, Missile Pod, Flamer (164)
Troops
Kroot, 5 Extra, 2 Hounds, Sniper Rounds (115)
Kroot, 5 Extra, 2 Hounds, Sniper Rounds (115)
Kroot, 5 Extra, 2 Hounds, Sniper Rounds (115)
Kroot, 5 Extra, 2 Hounds, Sniper Rounds (115)
Elites
Crisis Suit, 2 Extra, 3 Flamers each (111)
Crisis Suit, 2 Extra, 3 Flamers each (111)
Crisis Suit, 2 Extra, TL Missile Pod each, Velocity Tracker each (186)
Fast Attack
Pathfinders, 4 Extra, Recon Drone (116)
Pathfinders, 4 Extra, Recon Drone (116)
Heavy Support
Broadsides, 2 Extra, Missile Fists, Velocity Tracker (255)
Total: 1569
I'd pair this with Eldar or some MEQ if I was going to 2000. If you want to drop it to 1500 drop the Ethereal and the TL Missile pod on the Commander. If you want room for more Allies drop a Kroot and use the Ally Troops and drop the Ethereal.
The strategy for this is that you create a turtle. The crisis suits are what directly engage the enemy but the rest of your army stays back and launches barrages at your enemy if they come to midfield. It's pretty annoying to play against and has a lot of denial. The commander flits between the Crisis suits with Missile pods or the Broadsides. Mostly the Broadsides giving them shield drones and Overwatch flamer.
Ally
HQ
Commander, Puretide, C&C Node, Multi-spectrum, (125)
Troops
Firewarriors (54)
Elites
Riptide, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Ion Cannon, TL Plasma, 2 Shield Drones (235)
Total: 414
Mostly a joke ally but fun nonetheless. You're Commander has no gun and thus always grants the benefit of Ignores Cover and Re-roll to hit for anyone he joins. The Riptide is purely there to Overcharge every single turn and just constantly blast away at vehicles and MEQ units. The drones are there to absorb shots for him and make it hard to wound the unit with the average Toughness being 6. He gets the two support systems so that he can shoot down flyers occasionally with the Tank Hunters he can re-roll if he fails which is nice.
HQ
Commander, Puretide (notice anything?), 2 TL Missile Pod (140)
Troops
Kroot (60)
Heavy Support
Broadside, 2 Extra, Missile Fists, Velocity Trackers (255)
Total: 455
This is an actual ally. It has a total of 16 TL Autocannon shots that can be Skyfire and Tank Hunters. Between them and a Quad-gun you'll have a ton of midfield firepower and can use the rest of your army for Razorback spam, Flyers and whatnot. You could take CSM, Space Wolves, Mech IG, Eldar or GK with this no problem.
An alternative to the above that you can take this:
HQ
Commander, Puretide, TL Missile Pod (120)
Troops
Kroot (60)
Elites
Crisis Suit, 2 extra, TL Missile Pod, Velocity Trackers (186)
Heavy Support
Broadside, 1 Extra, Missile Fists (130)
Total: 496
16 TL autocannon shots again, 6 of them Skyfire instead of 12. Commander can switch better either unit to give them Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters. You could just drop the Velocity Trackers entirely and get another Broadside. That'd make it 501 points and give you an extra 4 TL autocannon shots. Either of these allies would be used to take down Flyers and do a good bit of damage to light vehicles and FX units.
I haven't come up with too much yet as far as Tau allies go but if you've got any ideas feel free to show a list below.
Thanks for reading!
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